Libyan rebels prepared for further attacks today by forces loyal to leader Muammar Gaddafi as both sides struggled for control of a strategic coast road and oil industry facilities.
Rebels holding the port city of Zawiyah, 50km west of the capital, Tripoli, said they had been launching counter-attacks against Gaddafi’s forces massing in the area and warned supplies of medicines and baby milk were running low.
“Women and children are at home while the men are armed and roam the streets and city limits in anticipation of a major attack by pro-Gaddafi forces tonight,” resident Ibrahim told Reuters by telephone.
In eastern Libya, witnesses said a warplane bombed Brega, an oil terminal town 800km east of Tripoli, for the second day yesterday. Warplanes also launched two raids against the nearby rebel-held town of Ajbadiya, witnesses said.
The popular uprising against Gaddafi’s 41-year rule, the bloodiest yet against a long-serving ruler in the Middle East or North Africa, has knocked out nearly half of the Opec member-nation’s output of 1.6 million barrels of oil per day, the bedrock of its economy.
Gaddafi’s government took foreign journalists on a tour of western Libya as part of efforts to show he remained in control.
Towns and villages erupted in jubilation as the convoy passed through. Crowds of supporters shouted “God, Muammar, Libya, together” and children kissed portraits of Gaddafi.
Yet signs of resistance were apparent. In several towns, buildings had been torched and many house fronts were covered with anti-government slogans, a Reuters reporter said.
The roads were heavily fortified with Gaddafi’s army tanks, anti-aircraft guns and truck-mounted rocket launchers.
In Zawiyah, residents said Gaddafi’s forces had deployed in large numbers over the past days. “We estimate there are 2,000 on the southern side of town and have gathered 80 armoured vehicles from the east,” resident Ibrahim said, adding a battalion had also come from the west side.
“But our youths are not sitting idle,” he said. “We killed two of their men last night and operations like these allow us to build up our arsenal. We have already seized 10 to 15 of the army’s tanks and a large number of Kalashnikovs.”
His account could not immediately be verified.
The government says it is not using military force to retake rebel-held cities although one official did not rule it out if all other options were exhausted.
“Workers at Zawiyah’s public hospital went today (Thursday) to Tripoli to get some (medical supplies) for the civilians wounded during clashes,” Ibrahim said, “but the administration there that supplies public hospitals refused to hand them any simply because it was destined for Zawiyah.”
Another resident, Ali, told Reuters by telephone: “We are starting to have problems with supplies for some medicines as well as getting baby formula . . . Libya needs help from the international community. We only want our freedom.”
Mediation plan
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said reports indicated that two Libyan Red Crescent ambulances were shot at yesterday in Misrata, west of Benghazi, and two volunteers were wounded.
The ICRC has 12 staff in Benghazi, including a medical team visiting areas outside the city in cooperation with the Libyan Red Crescent.
Yesterday, Venezuela said Gaddafi had agreed to its proposal for an international commission to negotiate an end to the turmoil in the world’s 12th largest oil exporting nation.
But Gaddafi’s son Saif al Islam said there was no need for foreign mediation in the crisis; a leader of the uprising rejected talks with the veteran leader; and the Arab League said cautiously that the plan was “under consideration”.
In Paris, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said France and Britain would support the idea of setting up a no-fly zone over Libya if Gaddafi’s forces continued to attack civilians.
US President Barack Obama said the United States and the international community must be ready to act rapidly to stop violence against civilians. He expressed outrage at the bloodshed, called on Gaddafi to step down, and emphasised the importance of humanitarian efforts.
But Juma Amer, secretary for African affairs at the Libyan Foreign Ministry, told journalists: “Media reports that civilian areas were bombed are false.”
Saif said Brega was bombed to scare off militia fighters and to gain control of oil installations. “The bombs (were) just to frighten them to go away,” he told Britain’s Sky News.
On the ground, rebels leading the unprecedented popular revolt pushed their front line west of Brega. They said they had driven back troops loyal to Gaddafi to Ras Lanuf, site of another major oil terminal, 600km east of Tripoli.
In The Hague, International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said Gaddafi and members of his inner circle could be investigated for possible war crimes committed since the uprising broke out in mid-February.
Libyan government spokesman Musa Ibrahim told BBC radio: “No fact-finding mission has been sent to Libya. No diplomats, no ministers, no NGOs or organisations of any type were sent to Libya to check the facts . . . No one can be sent to prison based on media reports.”
An aide to Mustafa Abdel Jalil, head of the rebels’ National Libyan Council, called for foreign help to set up a no-fly zone to protect civilians and help rebels topple Gaddafi.
Save The Children and Medecins Sans Frontieres said they were struggling to get medicine and care to Libya’s needy, with gunmen blocking roads and civilians too scared to seek help.
The upheaval is causing a humanitarian crisis, especially on the Tunisian border where tens of thousands of foreign workers have fled to safety. But an organised international airlift started to relieve the human flood from Libya as word spread to refugees that planes were taking them home.
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